The Enemy Within

[vision_content_box style="teal-grey" title="The Enemy Within • Article By Alister Benn"]
[vision_feature icon="fa-camera" icon_color="#82c982" icon_color_hover="#ffffff" bg_color_hover="#82c982" border_color="#82c982" border_width="2px" animate="in_from_top"]The photographs you take should be the ones you feel are right, not the ones you think others will like. Alister Benn identifies fear as the enemy inside us all and encourages you to fight it[/vision_feature][/vision_content_box]

I’m a big fan of quotes, especially motivational or profound ones that inspire me to grow, experience life and engage with my existence. Why? Because life can be scarily ordinary if we don’t watch out for complacency and acceptance on a daily basis.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

The fact that this is one of the most overused clichés of all time does not make it any less true.

As landscape photographers, I feel that there can be a lot of pressure to play it safe; making images that are acceptable, conventional, accessible and of places that people know to be beautiful. In many ways in fact, it is human nature to conform – society rarely embraces the maverick. As soon as we make an image and send it out there into the world, the exposure to risk begins – critique, lack of acceptance, scorn, ridicule, commentary on composition, and the classic of perspective – “you should have taken a step to the left!”

Virtually every aspect of our lives is open to this same degree of judgment on a daily basis. What we wear to work, our body image, our hairstyle, dress sense, political and religious opinions; it’s endless. Some people experience fear at public speaking, others of being different and not being in with the crowd. Part of this journey through our lives is that acceptance of who we are and that our individual opinions actually matter...
[vision_notification style="tip" font_size="20px"]Read the whole article inside issue 68.[/vision_notification]

About Author

Alister Benn is a full-time landscape photographer, author and guide. Having lived for over a decade in the Himalaya of Tibet and SW China, he now lives and works on the Isle of Skye with his wife Juanli Sun.

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